The Trial of Ensign Ro
by fictiongal
Summary: Ensign Ro wants to reopen her case, but does Picard fully trust her? This story was inspired by the TNG episode "Ensign Ro" in season 5. I don't own Star Trek but I do love it. Please read and leave a comment. It's the only payback we get here.


**The Trial of Ensign Ro**

Lately, Ensign Ro Laren had been trying to overcome her natural reticence and had been making more effort to be social. But not tonight. Tonight she fell back into old habits and sat alone in Ten-Forward nursing a drink, reflecting. She sighed heavily and took another swallow of the dark amber liquid in her glass.

"I thought you weren't going to do this anymore."

Ro looked up to find Guinan taking a seat across from her.

"I was just thinking about something," Ro replied, "No big deal. I'm glad you've joined me."

"Only for a moment. I don't normally sit with my customers. Just when I think they're especially troubled."

Ro smiled and rolled her eyes. "I doubt I'm more troubled than anyone else in here."

"Then why am I sitting here with you?" Guinan asked. "Be honest. What's upsetting you?"

Guinan had a way of squeezing the truth out from her and this time was no different. Despite her reluctance, Ro answered honestly. "I keep thinking about my court-martial. How it all went down."

"Hmmm…." Guinan tilted her head. "I heard you were the one who went down. Without a fight."

Ro looked away uncomfortably. "It was the best decision I could make at the time. The only one I could make."

"And why was that?"

"I really don't want to talk to you about this."

"The last time you told me that, we ended up in Captain Picard's Ready Room. Haven't you learned anything?"

"What? You're going to tell me a children's tale of how honesty is the best policy?"

"Not exactly. But I will tell you what a very special friend of mine once told me. When you're stuck in a rabbit hole, sometimes the only way out, is to go all the way in." With that, Guinan rose from the table and left Ro perplexed.

Ro always took whatever Guinan said very seriously. If not for Guinan, Ro would never have found the courage to trust Captain Picard with the truth of her mission and she was certain things would have gone very badly if she hadn't. As it was, Admiral Kennelly was under investigation for his subterfuge and Ro had received a full pardon for her prior involvement in the deaths of eight of her fellow crewmen. While she felt immense relief to be free of that prison and grateful for the opportunity Picard had offered her with Starfleet, the events which had led to her incarceration still hung heavily in her mind. She recalled her court-martial and how she had chosen not to defend herself. The result had been a prison sentence and being stripped of rank. Up till then, she had been proud of her service in Starfleet. Proud to be one of the few Bajorans representing her race. She hated that she had seriously undermined the opinion of Starfleet in regard to the reliability of Bajorans in general. That was a sad consequence of the choice she had made, one she had to live with.

#

"Geordi, what the hell is a rabbit?" Ro asked the next day while they were working together in Engineering.

Geordi paused and smiled. "A rabbit? Well, it's a small soft furry animal on Earth, kind of cute actually. About this big." He motioned with his hands as he described it. "Big long ears, cotton tail, wiggly little nose. Why?"

"They live in holes?"

"Um yeah. They hide in tunnels and burrows."

"So they're prey then?"

Geordi nodded and laughed. "What's this all about?"

"I'm not sure. It was just something Guinan said."

"Oh." Geordi smiled knowingly. "One of those cryptic remarks she loves so much."

#

Over the next few days, Ro mulled over Guinan's words. Was Ro the rabbit? Prey stuck in its hole hiding, with the only way out to go all the way in? _All the way in_. What would that mean? Returning to the scene of the crime, opening old wounds, telling what really happened? Would it make any difference if she did? Slowly Ro came to the decision that it might, whereas failure to do so guaranteed no chance of it at all. She had trusted Picard once before with good results. Perhaps it was time to trust him again.

"Ensign Ro," Picard greeted her as she entered his Ready Room. "Please , have a seat. I understand you have something you want to discuss with me."

"Yes, sir. Thank you, sir," she sat down and took a deep breath as he waited expectantly. She knew he would not appreciate her wasting his time, so tried to get right to the point. "I want to reopen my case, sir."

"You received a full pardon, Ensign," he reminded her.

"Yes, sir. A pardon, in exchange for services rendered. But what I want, what I need, is exoneration."

"I see." Picard frowned thoughtfully. "I read your file. There did not appear to be any basis for exoneration. Clearly you disobeyed a direct order and eight of your fellow crewman died."

"It's true I disobeyed. It's also true they died. But their deaths were not because I disobeyed that order."

"Interesting that you should say this now, when you made no such claim during your trial. In fact, you offered no defense at all."

"I know. I thought it wouldn't make any difference what I said. And I felt so guilty about their deaths. If I had moved sooner, not waited… somehow it just felt easier to accept the blame."

"But now you feel differently?"

"I realize now, it's not just about me, my personal guilt. It's about all the Bajorans in Starfleet and how the Federation judges my people in general. My dishonor becomes theirs as well. I need to correct this, set the record straight for them as well as for myself."

"You're very proud of your cultural heritage, I know." Picard acknowledged.

"Yes, I am." She fingered the dangling jewels on her left ear, symbolizing her Bajoran roots. "Thank you for giving me special dispensation to wear these," she said. "I know it violates protocol."

"It's a small thing," he said. "Worf has his sash. Deanna has her…" he searched for the right word, "…outfits."

Ro smiled at that. "They are a bit revealing."

"Better that than running around here naked as Betazoids are prone to do." He smiled in return, but the smile quickly faded. "As to your desire to reopen your case, you'd have to come up with some hard evidence. Can you?"

"I believe I can, with your help. I need access to the complete transcript of my trial, the crew logs, the autopsy reports and all correspondence between my superior officer and the terrorists who were holding those crewmen captive, as well as records of all contact with those same terrorists in the past."

"What is it you hope to prove, Ensign?"

"That those crewmen had a death sentence over their head the moment those terrorists captured them and no amount of negotiations would have saved them. I violated that order because I knew they had no chance if someone didn't go in after them. My only regret is that I didn't ignore my orders sooner. By the time I did, it was too late."

"The prosecution claimed that it was your unauthorized attempt to rescue them that resulted in their execution."

"He's wrong. I believe the crewmen had already been executed before I got there."

"An interesting theory. Very well. I don't know if you can prove what you claim, but I will assist you in obtaining the pertinent records. Dismissed, Ensign."

"Thank you, sir," Ro started to stand, but then sat down again. "I have one more request, Captain."

"Yes?"

" If I am successful in reopening my case, would you be willing to appear as a character witness?"

"A character witness?" Picard pondered the question. He hadn't known Ro very long. "We shall see, Ensign. Ask me again, when the time comes."

Again he dismissed her and this time she left without further comment. Ro had proved invaluable on that mission dealing with the Bajoran terrorist group, but was he willing to stand behind her as being completely trustworthy? On that he wasn't sure. He had high hopes for her and saw much potential there. And Guinan seemed to like her. Picard put great trust in Guinan's opinion of people and had trusted Ro based in large part on that very fact. So far he wasn't sorry that he had. He was impressed with Ro's performance and ready to test her further. But stand as a character witness? He questioned why he hesitated. Surely, Guinan couldn't be wrong. Still, he needed more time. Only time would prove whether Ensign Ro deserved his trust in the long run. He hoped very much that she wouldn't disappoint him.


End file.
